WHY NCC BANS MTN GLO AND AIRTEL FROM SIMCARD SALES AND PROMO

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said that MTN Nigeria, Glo and Airtel Nigeria were still banned from selling subscriber identification module (SIM) card and conducting sales promotions despite paying the N647.5 million fines imposed by the regulator for poor quality of service.
The ban on new SIM card additions to their networks and sales promotions takes effect from March 31, 2014. The ban is to keep the telecom network stable from deteriorating beyond the current
quality of service.
According to a top official of NCC, “The ban is still in effect. Merely paying the fines does not take away the directive of the Commission. The operators have fulfilled one aspect of the sanction, the other one-the fines- will take effect at the appropriate time,” he said.
MTN, Globacom and Airtel had at the end of business last Friday paid the N647.5million fines for not meeting up with the key performance indicators (KPIs). NCC imposed another round of sanctions against the mobile operators. following a December 2013 ‘Notice of Intention to Sanction’ to all mobile network operators (MNOs) to improve quality of service and meet set KPIs by December 31, 2013 or face regulatory intervention.
The sanctions were contained in separate letters dated February 19, 2014, addressed to each of the affected MNOs. NCC has asked Globacom, MTN and Airtel to pay N277.5million, N185million and N185million respectively for the month of January.